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Celestia and Luna were born as earth pony foals in a dangerous world. They must rise from nothing to become the princess we know, upsetting chiefs, gods, and the very forces of nature in the balance. ·SlyWit

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Celestia loses sight of her sister for a few minutes. But those are enough for baby Luna to get into the Everfree Forest. Now Celestia has to find her sister again, while Nightmare Moon can play babysitter for a certain cub. ·EbonyDanger

I'm a big fan of folktales and I've always wondered what Equestria's would be like, given that they actually have a for-real "fairy tale wood" in the form of the Everfree Forest. This one was particularly inspired by Baba Yaga in Russian folklore, who lives in the woods in a hut that stands on chicken legs. The protagonist usually has to say a rhyme to convince the chicken-hut to turn around so they can get through the door.

Poor Luna indeed, victim of such a bad press! Very well done fairy tale, it certainly hits all the traditional elements, especially the recurring rhymes, the ancient trope of having three challenges, and the guile hero narrowly escaping death by appealing to the monster's vanity.

>>12172471217247 I think she'd either be furious or find it hilarious. Or just be indignant. "LIES! IT IS OUR ROYAL SISTER WHO STUFFS HERSELF ON PASTRIES AND CAKE LIKE A PIG, OINK OINK OINK!" (From the side: "Hey!")

Okay, this was brilliant! Very much Grimm's tales for ponies, complete with the rhymes and trickery and the final gobbling.

(The parts about "unnatural" plants not growing in neat rows, and "unnatural" animals not trusting Geode and even trying to eat her fit in perfectly with the My Little Terraformer ethos, too.)

As for Luna's reaction... I think she'd be indignant at first, and then write her own book of fairy tales very much in the vein of Edward Gorey and/or Angela Carter - funny, dark, occasionally gruesome and very enjoyable. A bunch of stupid and/or cocky protagonists might end up gobbled!

I loved this. Clever little Geode seems to have a streak of Pinkie Pie in her, as well as Applejack. Now Luna and Zecora have new material for next Nightmare Night, I can actually hear this in Zecora's voice, only she'd have to save up the rhyming for just Geode's lines, and I'm not sure she'd agree to that.

I agree that the ever-widening doors and the gluttony have that overtone of Brothers Grimm that makes all the difference. I'm impressed that Geode doesn't need to ask a cat or a talking doll and figured out what to do on her own.

The younger sister is always the smarter and more cunning one in these types of stories. Even if in real life the big sister might be the more subtle one and the younger sister the more direct and forceful.

Little Sister's amazing body-swapping antics were inspired by Luna in "Luna Eclipsed." Apparently she can turn herself into Nightmare Moon at will, so what other shape-changing capabilities might she have? Possibly none as bizarre as the ones seen here.

Again, the story is very true to the feel of fairy tales, what with the whole "let's trick Discord into messing himself up" thing, and Big Sister's logarithmically mounting curses, and the overall ambiance of course.

And although mixing the roles and personalities of Luna and Celestia seems more plausible, I kind of like the idea that young Celestia was very direct and straightforward indeed!

This is based heavily on the Russian tale "Old Favors Are Soon Forgotten", which left me depressed for two days straight after reading it. (In the Russian tale the peasant saves a wolf and meets a horse, dog, and finally a fox.) An example of how folktales are not necessarily straightforward and moralistic. Sometimes they're meant to disturb, and not in the "I will grind your bones for my bread" way.

That's messed up. Sometimes the only lesson in a folktale is that people are bastards.

As an aside, I've been wondering what a pony version of the parable of the scorpion and the frog would be like, or if it would be basically the same. I've had a hankering to use it in a story to explain how Discord could have once been friends with Celestia and Luna (a popular fanon idea) and still betray them; "It's my nature."

You'll note some of the "Native American equivalent" characters in this are ponies; I figured that just because the tribe seen in "Over a Barrel" was buffalo doesn't mean all tribes are buffalo. Kind of like how I figure there are French ponies, even though that one griffon is French too.

Definitely got the Baba Yaga vibe from this story. To me it looks like it's even written like a Russian folk tale. Or at least, how Russian folks tales read when they're written down. If that makes any sense.

Did you mean the pony killed the griffon at the end? And they keep talking about how they will ask the next "person" they meet. There has to be a different way to say that - maybe "creature"? Fluttershy used that word as a catch-all in Dragonshy.

>>13256331325633 No--she kills the changeling. (And the griffon too, he is trampled to death.) In the original version the peasant kills the helpful fox in the last line . . . I read it again and again, hoping I was misunderstanding. "The wolf, he killed the WOLF, right? Oh my God, this is awful!" Then I realized . . . it is supposed to be awful. And we're told all along what to expect from (in the original) the horse and the dog who are driven away when they're no longer useful. I think the original reflects a struggle to between what has to be done in a hardscrabble Russian village--no room for animals who don't "contribute" something, or no one will survive--versus what should be done. Of course in Equestria the fact that cows and such are intelligent complicates things. In either case, it's only the outsiders (the wolf and fox in the original, wild animals) who are willing to even consider the peasant's arguments. The others already know . . . old favors are soon forgotten.

This probably isn't a story modern day Equestrians would hear often, since they're living in plentiful times where they aren't faced with this dilemma.

I think you are right about "creature" instead of "person", I'm going to try that. Thanks!

I was rewatching Bridle Gossip the other night and I caught Twilight using the word "people". It could be a writer's mistake, but I prefer to think that they use the word to collectively refer to any or all sapient species.

>>13256301325630 Oh, have you ever read Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones? The main character is the eldest in a "fairy tale" type world and she's resigned herself to working in her mother's shop forever while the youngest sister has adventures. Great book and very funny!